November 13, 2012

Second-Ranking Official Leaving Consumer Financial Agency

Raj Date, the number two official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is leaving the agency at the end of January.

Agency spokeswoman Jennifer Howard confirmed Date's departure, but said he has not announced his future plans, "other than to spend more time with his family." His departure is timed to coincide with the completion of the agency’s pending rules on mortgages.

Originally hired by Elizabeth Warren as a senior advisor in February of 2011 to help establish the new agency, Date previously worked for Deutsche Bank Securities and Capital One Financial. After Warren departed, he took over her role as special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on CFPB, leading the agency until Richard Cordray became CFPB director.

"Many in the banking community viewed him as a connection," said Venable of counsel Jonathan Pompan. "He's the highest-profile staff person at the bureau, and one of the longest-serving, who also worked in the financial services sector."

Howard said in an email that Date "has spent more than two years building the agency at a breakneck pace, playing a number of key leadership roles….His legacy is a consumer bureau grounded in data-driven analysis, market-based pragmatism, and the real-world experiences of American consumers."